Company Background
Kerry Logistic is the leading third- party logistics freight services, warehouse operations, and supply chain company in Hong Kong. It is an assets- based company, and owned a series of assets such as: logistic center, container terminal, port terminal, inland container deport, rail terminal and truck fleet over the world. Talking about the internationalism, Kerry did a great job in terms of 20 thousand employees, 550+ office locations, 43 meters square feet logistics facilities and 7500+ self- owned trucks. In 2014, there was HKD21.1 billions on its turnover and the predicted profit will be keep on increasing said by the director of Hong Kong branch. Also, Kerry Logistics across a wide spectrum of industries including fashion & lifestyle, electronics & technology, food & beverage, FMCG, to industrial & material science, automotive, and pharmaceutical & healthcare. It provides customers with solution-based mindset and can-do attitude can be found in each and every one of their professional employees and partners across the globe.
Company Development
1981 Kerry Logistics first established warehouse in Hong Kong
1991 The Group had five warehouses and acquired one warehouse with an aggregate GFA of approximately 2 million sq.ft..
1999 Opened their flagship logistics facility, Kerry Cargo Centre.
2000 The company name was changed to “Kerry Logistics Network Limited”(KLN).
2003 In collaboration with a joint venture partner, the first logistics centre in China was developed.
2004 KLN commenced freight forwarding operations in Taiwan
2005 EAS was one of the leading domestic freight and warehousing companies in China at the time.
2008 They acquired an initial equity interest in Kerry TJ Logistics, previously named “T.Join Transportation Co.,Ltd”.
2010 Kerry Logistics Wins Two Hong Kong RFID Awards
2011 Kerry Logistics Wins Asian 3PL Award at the Supply Chain Asia Logistics Awards
2012 Kerry Logistics Building Customized Facility for International Automotive Company Daimler
2013 KLN managed approximately 6 million sq.ft. of self-owned facilities in Hong Kong.
2014 Kerry Logistics Named Best 3PL Provider at Asian Manufacturing Awards 2014
2016 Kerry Logistics Looks to Double Berth Space at Kerry Siam Seaport to Capture Increasing ASEAN Growth
Our Visit
The slides show the visit process of our student.
Q & A
1. As you using Asia as company headquarter, what is your comment on the Asian Transportation market? For example, the development of e-commerce in
China (Taboo)?
To cope with the growing demands in the e-commerce business, Kerry logistics has established warehouses and extensive transportation network across Asia, such as Vietnam Danang Logistics Centre, Malaysia EAE Logistics Centre, and Hanjin-Kerry Logistics Centre in Korea. Moreover, Kart (Kerry Asia Road Transport) program is established to connect the ASEAN wide road transportation among the emerging economies such as Laos, Cambodia, etc. The kart provides 7 key routes as follows.
Route 1 Bangkok – Malaysia – Singapore
Route 2 Bangkok – Ho Chi Minh City; Bangkok – Hanoi – Pan China
Route 3 Bangkok – Kunming (weekly services available)
Route 4 Bangkok – Phnom Penh
Route 5 Bangkok – Vientiane
Route 6 Bangkok – Yangon
Route 7 Pan China – Mandalay – Yangon
Route 8 Sarawak – Sabah
2. Since your company is expert in warehousing management, how would you provide the premier value added services to the customer, like the services provided (labelling), as well as technologies used?
As mentioned by the director, Kerry logistics provide numerous value added services. An example is that the delicate ribbons on the packages of Godiva chocolates are tied by the Kerry logistics staff, Moreover, Kerry logistics provide labelling and packaging services. Before the chocolate or food is sent out to the outbound logistics for shipping to the retailers, Kerry logistics also ensure the quality by strict quality control. The chocolate which is found to be below standards are disposed. In other cases, For some apparels, the clothing are ironed before shipping.
3. What has Kerry logistics done to overcome the challenges of ever-increasing labor and fuel costs?
The fuel cost of transportation has not posed as a challenge to Kerry Logistics. Yet, to overcome the challenge of ever-increasing labor cost, Kerry Logistics increases its productivity by providing suitable and useful tools to employees and designing production procedures to be more efficient and effective so there are minimum motion and transportation wastes. Hence, higher productivity generates more income to cover its high labor cost.
4. What kinds of special-care products still not included in logistics service currently?
Kerry Logistics still not included the explosive products in their service currently. Due to the legal system, it is not allowed to transfer explosive products except the authorized parties. However, Kerry Logistics would like to focus their business on pharmaceuticals, since aging problem is a big issue nowadays. Every government of countries need to control this problem and then to increase the treatment to the elderly. Therefore, the market demand need to be improved. Kerry Logistics can focus more on Express, and build a platform quickly, to enlarge the market share.
5. What is your core business in the future?
With a view to keeping abreast of indirect competitors, the express companies, such as DHL, S.F. Express, Kerry Logistics will start dabbling in express business in the near future as well as tapping into B2C market which is still plenty of room to be dogged into.
Still, Kerry Logistics would expand its business into ASEAN regions and maintain its position of extensive distribution and operation footprint in delivering integrated logistics.
6. How do you determine the location of office in order to achieve an efficient network?
To achieve efficient network, the office should be placed near the to the operation. It will convenient to manage and pack the products, which time can be saved. For example, the fashions, just like GAP, will be stored in Tsuen Wan Center.
7. What perspectives would you consider when you offer tailor-made supply chain solutions for your customers?
By thoroughly discussing order details with customers, sufficient information could be acquired and three perspectives would be considered, namely cost, feasibility in terms of system and time sensitivity.
In terms of cost, a tailor-made service to customers helps saving costs for them as additional procedures can be done beforehand that customers do not need to work on themselves later on.
For feasibility in terms of system, we would need to consider if the system can provide respective support to the customized needs.
For time-sensitivity, we would need to consider if the order requires a short lead time. If it does, a tailor-made solution might not be possible.
8. How do you allocate inventories to different warehouses?
Kerry Logistic offers wide-range and dedicated warehouse, for example Kerry TC warehouse in Kwai Chung is specialized for foods. The choices of warehouse for inventories are determined by the customers themselves according to the species of inventory and convenience of the customers. However, Kerry Logistics will provide recommendations to the customer.
9. There are lots of cargoes movements in warehouses every day. How would you ensure they can be delivered on time? How do you plan the delivery schedules?
From departure to arrival of the goods, Kerry Logistic conducts comprehensive tracking and high-degree controlling. In order to ensure the accuracy of on-time delivery, EPOD and GPS have been installed in every trucks so that the person- in-charge is able to track the location of the inventory. As long as there is emergent incident, alternative solution or other substitute truck can help immediately. Also, if there would be late delivery, Kerry logistic can inform their customer and apologize beforehand.
10. What are your competitive advantages over your competitors in transportation market, such as DHL, FedEx, S.F. Express?
With profound knowledge and tremendous assets invested in properties and real estates, Kerry Logistics is at the financial advantage and is of abundant resources in terms of labor, customer base, extensive coverage of warehouses across Hong Kong and even China regions, IT capability and so on and so forth, enabling it to enjoy economies of scales in rental, transportation, production and customer service etc. Unlike the express of kind competitors such as FedEx, S.F. Express and DHL, Kerry Logistics has been setting foot on B2B businesses rather than B2C. Its consolidated and prevalent goodwill of providing business customers with tailor-made logistic solutions and irreplaceably high customer service stand Kerry Logistics in a good stead and make it one of the best logistic enterprise. That is a reason why Kerry Logistics saw steady growth over past few years, and this momentum is expected to continue as well.
Reflection
Once stepped into the plant, it has already given a professional impression to us. After listening to the brief introduction of Kerry, it is discovered that logistics is not only distributing and transporting products along the supply chain nowadays, but also providing highly-customized logistics services while Kerry Logistics has been being a benchmark on this. Unlike the services provided from S.F. Express, Kerry Logistics provides a IT system which is customer-oriented for clients to easily track and trace for their goods from ordering to delivering while each of the solutions provided are based on customers’ preferences as well. These are the reasons why Kerry Logistics has been being hired from a wide range of industries, such as fashion, retail, electronics and food and beverages. It is believed that this operating approach can benefit Kerry Logistics from having a strong customers’ loyalty.